EconomicPolicyJournal.com has learned that 32 states have run out funds to make unemployment benefit payments and that the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed. In some cases, states have borrowed billions. As of May 20, the total balance outstanding by 32 states (and the Virgin Islands) is $37.8 billion.

The state of California has borrowed $6.9 billion. Michigan has borrowed $3.9 billion, Illinois $2.2 billion.

A law enforcement union will not release the results of a rank-and-file evaluation of the district attorney’s office’s chief investigator until after the June 8 election, a move that is politically motivated, the district attorney’s challenger says.

Chief investigator Vern Horst was appointed in 2008 by District Attorney Rod Pacheco, who has been endorsed for re-election by the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association.

Operators of a medical marijuana clinic and collective in Riverside said Friday both facilities will stay open in spite of a lawsuit the city of Riverside filed this week to shut them down.

Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos said he’s seeking an injunction against the clinic, which issues doctor recommendations for marijuana, and the nearby dispensary, a members-only collective where patients can purchase marijuana, because city zoning bans distribution of the drug.

VICTORVILLE • On Dec. 8, a representative from Inland Energy stood before the Victorville council and pledged to raise $25 million in loans for the city by mid-May through the federal EB-5 Visa Investor program.

Television dominates every California political campaign, and this one is certainly no exception, with two wealthy Republican candidates for governor gobbling up television time at a record pace. But there is a parallel campaign going on as well, one being waged mailbox by mailbox and phone by phone.

By the millions of pieces, candidates stuff mailboxes trying both to correct impressions left by television ads and to denigrate their opponents. Usually, mailers employ harsher denunciations than television ads, on the theory that negative visuals can boomerang against the author if voters tire of the mudslinging. With millions of telephone calls, candidates use the same tough tactics to entreat voters to their side.

The consensus among government and private economists who chart the world’s eighth-largest economy appears to be a qualified “yes” – qualified because even if recovery has begun, they also believe it will be slow, especially in employment.

Even if the nation’s recovery is brisk, California is likely to lag because the housing meltdown hit the state particularly hard. As it did, it adversely affected other major sectors of the economy, such as retail trade.

The race for California’s chief law enforcement officer is among the state’s most hotly contested in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.

The field includes four legislators, two district attorneys, a former city attorney, a constitutional law expert and a former Facebook legal counsel who has spent nearly $10 million of personal funds on his campaign.

Coachella Valley school districts last year received a combined $45.8 million in federal stimulus funds, part of which was used to save or add nearly 240 jobs this school year, including about 180 teaching jobs.

The cash provided a financial lifeline to districts struggling with budget shortfalls of $8 million to $16 million for next school year.